THE SPACIAL LUST OF HEARINGS

Homage to John M. Hull:  REST IS SILENCE

The installation was realized for the first time in Copenhagen at the multi-techno festival Labyrinth (Oct. 1-14, '96).  It was planned as a circular, hung assemblage in the middle of the room and was adapted to the situation of the room, since the latter was very high and the available site was open at right angles.  The sounding bodies were hung at a height of 5m from steel ropes stretched across the room and were connected with electric cables.  The ropes were 3-10m long, the load per rope 20kg.

The installation consists of 5 concrete components functionally connected with each other and several virtual components:

t 2 horizontally hung, 2.5m long sounding bodies:   ROHRSCHLEUDER / RSL
t 5 vertically hung, 2m sounding bodies:   DEKA-PIPE-ORGAN / DPO
t 2  1000 watt spots mounted at a height of about 7m
t 4 infrared sensors
t 4 alternating current regulators
t motionlessness and silence, external / internal / objective movement, distance, rhythm, intervals of time, density of sound, change of lighting angle of registration, site of listening

The subject consists of a "still" and a "loud" variant.  If no movement occurs in the room or only at night or beyond the range of the sensors or if viewing is motionless, the installation is silent and hangs quietly in the room as an aesthetic arrangement of machines, pipes and hoses.

The functional and sounding parameters are closely connected with each other.   If visitors approach and their approach is registered by the sensors of the spots, the spots ignite to light up the "still" installation.  When the site is entered, more and more sensors are triggered and the associated sounding objects activated.  In accordance with the respective scheme, these can be individual devices or groups of devices.  If the visitor remains motionless in the room, the sensors shut off, depending on their program or the registration area.  Thus, various moods can arise ranging from unlit sounds to silent light, from very compact sound formations or clouds to soft, quiet aeolian tones.  The rotation of the blowers imparts a leftward spin to the sounding bodies, which can wind back in the other direction in accordance with the hardness or softness of their hanging.  They light up in electric orange in proportion to their loudness.  The sound tones directly acoustically or amplified as well as distorted with digital effects.  Via regulated compressed air, it is flowing, rhythmic, multi-frequent atonal, randomly polyphonic.  The play of the installation is controlled externally.

The listeners receive the best impression if they move very slowly within the circle or merely turn their heads.  This effects minimalistic changes in the hearing impression of the received frequencies.  An optimal space-tone experience is achieved at low ambient noise levels.  Bare hard closed sites like churches, indoor swimming halls, caves, hollow spaces optimally reflect the high frequencies, so that interferences arise, concertante knots of sound, attenuated sound holes, or floatings.

The reactions of the visitors to Spatial Lust of Hearings, ranged between rejection, lack of interest, and total acceptance.  They played with the air pressure on the hoses, changed the shapes of the tones produced, listened with interest to the minimalistic sounds.

As raw material for live-perf-acts, the purely acoustic sound diversity can be worked up by means of amplification and changes to analog and digital, dry and distorted tones, sounds, noises, minimalistic symphonies, ambient cyberspectra.  The distortion is achieved by means of digital effect processors CPU.